AEA Investors and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) have acquired Rensa Filtration, a US air filtration group, from Audax Private Equity. AEA invested through its Middle Market Private Equity team. Audax is not exiting entirely, as it will keep a minority stake in the business alongside Rensa's management.
Rensa designs and manufactures highly engineered air filtration products for environments where air quality is critical. Its customers include data centres, power generation, semiconductor manufacturing, healthcare, and life sciences. The company is vertically integrated, covering everything from its own filtration media and filter manufacturing to distribution and local service.
"The modern economy requires highly controlled environments across complex digital and manufacturing processes," said Vinay Kumar, Partner at AEA Investors. He added that Rensa's founder and his team "have built a differentiated filtration platform with a strong track record of meeting customer needs across applications."
Brandon Ost founded Rensa in 2017 in Aurora, Illinois, and it has since become one of the largest privately held filtration companies in the US. Under AEA and BCI, the company plans to keep growing through acquisitions of founder-led businesses and to add complementary capabilities organically. Jon Salon, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Private Equity at BCI, said Rensa's "unique operating model and strong customer relationships create a solid foundation for continued growth."
BCI is one of Canada's largest institutional investors, with C$313.7bn ($223.3bn) in gross assets under management as of 31 March 2026. AEA, founded in 1968, invests across private equity and private credit and manages about $19bn.
Source: PE Insights · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing